


College Boys Act II

by EriSolShipper95



Series: Collegestuck/Humanstuck Erisol [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-11
Updated: 2013-11-13
Packaged: 2017-12-04 23:08:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/716131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EriSolShipper95/pseuds/EriSolShipper95
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After half a semester has passed by with the two avoiding each other, Eridan and Sollux are once again brought together. Despite what they comfortable to admit to, they will become much closer than they ever would have expected. *wonk wonk*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

# Part 1

You are Eridan Ampora. It has been 3 months since you’ve last seen Sollux. You normally wouldn’t be disturbed by this fact because he was kind of an ass. But, at the same time, you kind of miss your experience with him. He may have been a huge douche, but for a minute there, towards the end, he actually seemed like a nice guy. The tear you saw rolling from his lovely, golden eyes said that he was a sympathetic, passionate boy who is worthy of your devo- what the hell are you talking about? He was also an ass most of the time. Yep, mostly a total dick. No need to feel any sentiment towards him. When you see him next time, turn your nose up and walk right along. Not that he’d notice anyway, but no harm in letting it out there that you feel absolutely _nothing_ for his sorry ass. Although on the other hand...

Wait, no time for further contemplation. You look down at your watch which is a fancy purple with a black face clock that has gold hands and numbers. You are the epitome of classy. You notice that you are running late for your biology class. You quickly hurry out your dorm room with your backpack.

Although you are in a rush to get to class, you keep a steady, brisk-walking pace. No need to get sweaty and ruin your hair that you spent so much time on this morning and all other mornings to get perfect. On the outside, you keep your graceful composure, on the inside, your heart is racing like a heard of galloping horses. You hate being late to _anything_. You’re very punctual on most occasions. It just seems that college has already stricken you with slight laziness and a trait of being easily distracted.

You realize that there’s actually no need to rush to class because your biology professor is very kind and wouldn’t mind at all. But you don’t want to face the embarrassment of walking into class late only to be looked upon by the other, more punctual students. It seems like a trivial worry and unreasonable phobia, but no matter. You will only accept being looked upon by a crowd if they are looking to you as their leader, their primordial savior in a world of tasteless imbeciles.

You grin to yourself at the thought of being a powerful leader. But that future is unlikely. You realized a long time ago that such absurd desires are not to be sought after. You retain your fallback career plan to be an advanced psychotherapist. What’s more fun that penetrating the mind of an individual and influencing their actions? No, that’s dastardly, you’ll settle with being a therapist. As much as you dislike people, you feel it to be your duty to help others and more importantly retain the very little amount of sanity left in society.

You look back down at your watch and notice that you’re already 2 minutes late. You quicken your pace and make it inside the arts and sciences building. You hastily walk up those memorable steps. That day brushes by your mind once again.

You shake your head to shoo away the memory. You’re too busy with getting to class to focus on that. After escalating to the 2nd floor, you make a right down the corridor to get to your class in room B12. When you arrive at the door of the classroom, you notice a small group of other students just standing in front of it. They all seem to be looking at a piece of paper posted on the door. You make your way through the students to the front and read the sign. Apparently your professor decided to take a random day off. Class is cancelled for the day. The students all disperse with some cheers of “Awesome!”, “All right!” and “Great, 2 free hours!”. But you’re the odd one out who’s a little disappointed. You risked sweating and ruining your hair for nothing! Oh well, might as well make the best of your free-time while you have it. You decide that you’ll go back to your dorm and finish that essay that’s due for psychology. When you turn around, you bump right into a girl heading the opposite direction.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t see you there”, you state. You try to help her stand straight because you feared you knocked her over.

She sighs and reorganizes her folder and other papers in her arms. “Oh, it’s alright.” She says and then looks at your face. After a moment of staring, her eyes widen with fascination. What? Is there something in your teeth? You quickly try licking all your teeth with your tongue. Then you realize that that looks odd on the outside so you stop. After taking a short step back and looking you all up and down, she then straightens up and holds out her hand. “I’m Kanaya Maryam. You have a... an interesting fashion sense.”

Until she mentioned your “interesting” fashion sense, you were pretty eager to shake her hand. But now you hesitate. What’s she getting at? Is she trying to say that your sense of fashion is laughable or admirable? Hm, you reach the conclusion that she admires your wardrobe because the alternative is simply not possible. You shake her hand. “I’m Eridan Ampora. And I see your style is quite impressive as well.” She’s wearing what looks to be a designer red skirt with a clingy, black, long-sleeve top, topped with slick, ruby-red high-heels.

“Thank you, I designed this skirt myself actually.”

“Oh really? Impressive.” You have to admit that she did a very good layering and sewing job.

“I’m actually heading to my design class at the moment. You look like an excellent model.”

“Oh, posh. Really?”

“Of course. You already seem to be a connoisseur of fashionable clothing. Could I bother you to be my model for today?”

You are very flattered by this offer. But you’re hesitant to answer. You just got out of going to biology, why would you want to spend this time instead with some girl in a different class? Well, there can’t be any harm in delaying that essay just a little longer. Plus, you’ll get to help out a fashionable young dame and possibly get some free duds. You’re in.

“I have a couple hours to spare”

Kanaya leads you to her design class. The other students brought in models also. You’ve got some competition to be best-looking lad in the room. You strut your way into the room, letting Kanaya lead you to her area. She’s got a large collection of fabric in purples, blues, and blacks. This is very much your style. You stand beside her crafting table, striking a pose as she takes your measurements.

“Would you mind standing normally for a moment?” She asks.

“Oh, sorry.” You let down your pose disappointedly.

***

After the whole two hours of designing, cutting, and sewing, Kanaya has completed her project and donned it on you. It’s a very fancy and suave cape. It’s purple with a blue zig-zag design at the bottom. The collar stands high around your head with pointed tips. There are also little golden buds lining the cape and the collar. Her teacher gave her an A for the design and execution. You stand in front of a mirror eyeing yourself in your new cape.

“Well, what do you think?” Kanaya asks.

You stare at yourself in the mirror some more, completely still. Then, with a stern face, you say, “I love it.”

***

After helping out the Kanaya girl, you start to head back to your dorm. You didn’t want to wrinkle up the nice cape or let it drag on the dirty ground, so you wear it proudly and strut to the dormitories. The other students watch you walk by. Some in amazement, others in humor. You ignore those trying to sneer at your amazing fashion. They’re obviously jealous. You’ve just gotten a free, designer-like cape that no one else could possibly ever have. They have every right to be jealous.

Sadly, while you were distracted with your own beauty and style, you fail to notice coming upon a short set of stairs. You disgracefully trip on your own cape down the steps. Oh sonofabitch. You black out.

Moments later, you awake to a familiar voice.

“Hey...Dude...Dude, you okay?...Wake up...thon of a bitch.”


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sollux has been avoiding confrontation with Eridan for reasons unclear. He encounters one of his enemies, Equius in computer science. Finally, after working so hard to avoid re-encountering Eridan, an unfortunate (or fortunate, however way you see it) event happens that is counterproductive to his efforts.

# Part 2

You are Sollux Captor. You’ve distanced yourself from that guy you met the first day of the semester. You feel like such an ass to do all that shit to him and then bail. But you can’t help it. You’re truly a coward. You don’t make many guy friends because you’re too much of an ass. So to avoid losing possibly great friends, you distance yourself from them and never become friends in the first place. You prefer your solitary life. Much less drama and problems.

However, he _was_ a really nice guy. Sweet actually. You were a dick to him, yet he still found it in his heart to carry you all the way to the infirmary and stay with you the entire time. And, for a moment, during that odd hug, you felt really close. Too close. Almost as if you belonged there in his arms. It’s a very unusual feeling for you. But you disregard that because it was probably just some spur of the moment kinda thing. Although...

No, nothing could develop between you two. Like you said, you’re too much of an ass-hat to let your emotions through. And you really should head to class right about now. You normally leave to head to computer science a little late to ensure that you don’t encounter the Eridan guy, seeing as how he appears to also have a class in that building. Yep, arrive to class a little late and leave a little early. It does seem a little ridiculous to sacrifice going to classes normally simply to avoid a guy you have a crush on.

Wait, what was that last part? Nothing, it was nothing. Moving on, you pack your backpack and head out.

***

When you enter the science building, you freeze when you notice those familiar pants. Those black and blue striped pants. Those love legs that lead up to a taut, round...you mean you recognize those legs. More specifically, those pants. They belong to Eridan. You happened to walk in just as he was ascending the open staircase. That set of stairs where you fell, and he helped you back up on your feet, and embraced you, and you could feel his body heat and heartbeat. Needless to say, it was all a frightening, near-death moment.

You duck behind a small portion of protruding wall and peer out the side. You watch Eridan climb the stairs. You watch a little too closely, in fact. Wow, you never really saw how nice a butt he has from this point of view. With each step he takes, it looks round and tight. Not tight in that way, you perv. Like if he works out his glutes to get a taut figure. Obviously it pays off nicely. Very nicely.

Enough gawking. You can’t believe you even thought of looking at him that way. You shudder from the naughtiness of it, trying to shake away the bad thoughts. Eridan makes it up the stairs and goes down the hall, out of your sight. You feel the coast is clear so you continue making your way to computer science, which is luckily on the bottom floor, not in territory where it’s possible to run into Eridan.

You take a right down the hall, continue down till you get to room A22 on your left, and enter into the computer lab classroom. You laugh every time you see the room number. Despite convincing yourself that you’re an independent adult, you still have immature tendencies such as laughing at crude jokes. You are also, however a hypocrite who calls others out when they’re being openly immature. When you’re immature, you keep it to yourself and you’re reserved about it. But when someone else is immature, it’s obvious and it pisses you off so much.

When you enter the classroom, the first person you notice is that condescending douchebag, Equius Zahhak. He’s so belittling, that he actually thinks he’s in the right to order you around the robotics workshop. Most of the time you reject his orders, but every once in a while you do as he asks just to get his nagging self off your back. He’s also a huge brute that breaks all of the tools, leaving the operators of the workshop to order and pay for more equipment. Even for you, he’s such an ass sometimes. No, most times...no all times. He’s always an ass. The only time he’s ever nice to someone is with someone he looks up to or a companion who he finds at equal level of skill and/or strength, which is few.

Zahhak simply glares at you once he feels your presence in the room and makes his way to his seat. You hate him so much. You can’t wait to defeat him this year in the Robot Rampage competition. He may have robot building skills, but you’ve recently had an epiphany that you have hacking and programming skills. Yes, Zahhak will be encountering a very unexpected problem that’s almost outside the Robot Rampage restrictions. But if it means bringing Zahhak finally down on his knees, the risk is worth it.

You rarely let competition get the best of you, but when it comes to assholes that even you, an asshole yourself, hate, you rarely let it get past you. Unless of course it becomes too out of your way, because let’s face it, you become a lazy ass when it hardly concerns you anymore. But still, you like to make the ignorant assholes pay. It’s like a hobby almost. But you wouldn’t consider it a hobby of yours because that just makes you seem more asshole-y. You now realize you use the word asshole a lot... Oh well.

You take your seat and prepare for some pretty boring coding lectures you already know. Ughhh.

***

After sitting through about an hour and a half of this class, you realize that you already know all of this stuff and it isn’t going anywhere new. You figure that there will be no harm in missing the last bit of class and leave early. You get your things and begin to walk out of the class.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Zahhak tries stopping you.

“Home. I don’t need to relearn things I already know.”

“Well you are to respect your superiors, which includes the instructor.” He stands firmly facing you, but out of the way of the door.

“Fuck off, Zahhak.” You say with grimace and flip the bird to him. His face goes red with anger and he unfolds his arms about ready to punch you right in the face. But you quickly make an escape out the door. Man, he really gets pissed. But luckily, he doesn’t believe in ditching class at the expense of handling a personal problem. Unless, of course, it involves his best and probably only close friend, Nepeta Leijon. Their friendship is very strange, however when she’s around, he doesn’t dare make a scene, so in some ways it’s a good thing.

You make your way to the entrance of the arts and sciences building. You think that you notice yet again a pair of familiar legs. Nicely shaped, thin legs in stripes. But you must be seeing things because class can’t be over yet and he didn’t seem like the type to skip out on any class. Him and his freshman priorities. Hehe. You exit the building and make your way across the forum. When you make it across, you take a paved trail that leads to the road where your apartment is on but also passes by the dorms.

Then you notice a strange flailing of what seemed like a low purple flag. But it wasn’t a flag. It was too silky and covered in gold extras. But then you also notice that along with the flailing flag, which you now realize was probably a cape (who the fuck wears capes?), is a pair of overturned legs in striped pants up in the air. Aw shit...it’s Eridan.

You run towards the short set of stairs. You’re not sure why you’re helping but something inside you told you to react. When you get there, you see a passed out, handsome boy in glasses at the bottom of the steps. You quickly make it down the steps and kneel down beside the passed out Eridan. You put your hand on his chest and shake him a little and say, “Hey, wake up. Are you okay?” It’s not working. But you feel his heartbeat in the palm of your hand. It’s still beating hard probably from the rush of falling. Despite the severity of the situation, it feels kind of cute to feel his heart beat. Wait, what?

You start to slap his face lightly. “Hey. Dude. Dude, you okay? Wake up.” He kind of grunts but not necessarily awake. Aw shit, are you gonna have to call for paramedics? At this possibility you say, “thonofabitch”.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eridan is helped to his dorm by Sollux. There they have an interesting conversation that leads to an awkward moment of intimacy. Then, suddenly, it's super fucking awkward.

# Part 3

After a few light paps to the face, Sollux manages to make you come to. Now you’re sitting up on the hard concrete rubbing your head. You don’t think you fell that hard. But Sollux still asks you if you’re alright. What a sweetheart.

“Hey, are you alright? Do you feel nauthea or dithineth?”

“No, I think I’m fine. No concussion symptoms. Thanks”

“Oh, alright then. Tho I don’t have to take you to the infirmary.”

Yeah, _such_ a sweetheart...

“Here, let me help you up.”

He takes hold of your hands. They’re so soft and lovely. You’re unsure of why, but you get a strange high from feeling the skin of his palm against yours. You think that any skin-to-skin contact with him would give you an orgasmic euphoria. Wait, that could be taken sexually. That’s not what you mean. You mean-

“Let me help you get to your dorm at leatht. Show me to your dorm room”

Oh, he’s being nice. That’s...nice. Uh, should you accept his offer, or should you reject his help and continue with your plan of ignoring him forever because he seemed to be so fine with ignoring you? You should definitely stay committed to your previous plan. Reject him hard.

“Sure, it’s right this way.”

What the fuck is wrong with you? You apparently start walking with him by your side towards your dorm building. He has his arm wrapped around your torso to make sure you’re standing upright. Aaaaand once again you’re all warm-hearted from the close contact of your body to his. God damn this feels great. But you feel so wrong to feel that way. Why, why why??

“Tho uhhh...nithe to meet you again.” Sollux says, obviously trying to break the very awkward ice.

“Oh, uh. Yeah. I really didn’t expect meetin’ you like this.”

“Haha, me neither. But, I gueth it’th ath good a time ath any for me to apologithe.”

You straighten up a little from surprise.

“What do you mean? It’s not your fault I fell, and you’re bein pretty kind.”

“Well, I have to admit, I’ve been an ath to you. Again.”

So suddenly he’s sorry for avoiding you? Well don’t be so eager to accept his apology. Play dumb.

“Oh? What do you mean?”

“Well, I kind of avoided you thethe patht few monthth.” He sighs. Aw, his sigh is kind of cute. Oh my god, shut the hell up. Remember, he’s still an enemy. “And, I’m jutht not that good at converthation, okay? You theem like a great guy, really. I jutht...” he sighs again. But this time he sighs as more of frustration. This boy is very curious. You’d question him further, but you’ve arrived at your dorm room. And although halfway through the trip you fully regained your ability to walk on your own, you allowed him to keep his arm around you the whole way.

“Oh, well this is my dorm.” You unlock the door and step inside. Hm, should you invite him in? Would that seem weird? I mean you should show some gratitude, but, it’s _him_. Ugh...your inconvenient hospitality gets the better of you. You wave your arm into the dorm room and invite Sollux in. He looks at your gesture confused. But then he shrugs and agrees to enter. Damn, you were really counting on him being an ass some more and just walking away. Well, now we got some more shit to deal with having him in your room. Oh shit, he’s in your room. What. Do. You. Do???

“Heh, I had a dorm latht year. It thucked ‘cauthe I wath roomed with the camputh pothead.” Sollux starts saying, looking around your dorm, especially at your small collection of wizard figurines. Oh shit you forgot about those. No one’s supposed to know about them. You don’t mind if Karkat knows cuz he doesn’t give a fuck enough to tell anyone.

“Oh really? That sounds dreadful. Would you like something to drink?” You try to distract him from your secret obsessions.

“Uh, thure. What do you have?”

“Well,” you bend over to your mini-fridge and open it, “there’s Faygo, cola, crush...”

“I don’t have a crush.”

You stand up and turn around, “What?”

“I meant, uh, I’ll have a crush, uh, please. Hehe,” He answers nervously. Very strange boy indeed. You get a crush soda from the fridge and yourself a grape faygo. You sit back down on the bed next to Sollux and hand him his beverage. You twist off the cap, releasing the fresh _tss_ , and tilt your head back to take a big gulp. You were thirsty. He waits a while till he opens his drink. It seems like he didn’t really want a crush. But that’s weird. Well maybe you didn’t have that great of a selection to begin with and he chose the one he hated the least.

“So what were you saying about apologizing?” You ask.

“Oh, jutht that, you know, I’m thorry for being a dickhole about ignoring you and thtuff.”

Bitch mode on. “Oh. I never even noticed.” Damn, nice. You sassily take another drink of faygo. He makes a frown.

“Well, the truth ith that I felt you were a total clash againtht my thtyle tho I made thure you kept your dithtanthe. You jutht showed thigns of having a thing for me and I couldn’t allow it.” He smirks and takes another swig to which he grimaces.

“How could I possibly like someone as despicable as you?”, You retort and take a drink.

“That didn’t theem to thtop you from being all over me and tho gentlemanly after I fell down thothe thtairth.” Another drink.

“Yeah but I’m the one who knocked you down the stairs in the first place.”

“Shuttup, that wath an acthident and you know it,” He lays back on your bed. “Tho then you felt bad about it and helped me becauthe you’re tho in love with me. I thee right through you.”

“Ha, don’t flatter yourself, Sol. I wouldn’t want you if you were-“

“What? The latht perthon on the planet? That comeback ith tho old and lame.”

You turn to him, your torso is hovering over him and you’re holding yourself up with your hands on the bed on either side of him. “You know what I think?”

“W-what?”, he asks with his voice quivering.

“I think you started talkin’ to me, because _you’re_ the one who likes _me_.” You state very matter-of-factly and smirk. He show signs of nervousness in his face. Ha, you’ve got him cornered. The truth shall be revealed.

“Ha, ath if. I wouldn’t, um-“. Yep, speechless. He goes quiet, and your smirk is gone. You both find yourselves gazing into each other’s eyes. Why is it that he looks so...uncomfortably attractive right now. His lovely cheeks, his narrow jaw line that leads to a small, almost pointed chin, his thin lips that are just begging to meet with yours, it’s all confusingly seductive. And the worst part is that it doesn’t seem like he’s trying to appeal to you, this is just naturally how he looks to you.

You didn’t notice, but while you were gazing into his eyes, your face was lowering slowly, bringing your lips closer and closer to his. Oh no, is this actually happening? Are you gonna let this happen? In a moment, your lips meet his. But only for a split second with a slight touch, because Karkat bursts through the door. You quickly get up and Sollux sits up just as rapidly. Karkat is still standing in the doorway with an embarrassed look on his face. 

“Holy shit. Um, I’ll just be back later,” Karkat says and then quietly leaves and closes the door behind him.

“Uh, heh. I gueth I should go too,” Sollux says, getting up and getting his things.

“Um, okay. Later, I guess.” You say awkwardly. This is a really weird predicament.

“Uh, yeah. Thure,” Sollux says without looking back at you. He quietly leaves your room. You stay standing looking at the door, unsure of whether he was gonna walk back in or not. Deep down, you think you would’ve wanted that. But he doesn't, and you sit down on your bed. What the hell?


	4. Four

# Part 4

After slapping Eridan’s face a while, lightly of course, he becomes conscious and wakes up. He groans and sits up, with his legs still laid out. You don’t really want to, but you feel it is necessary to ask him if he’s alright.

“Hey, are you alright? Do you feel nauthea or dithineth?” Yeah that’s nice, ask if the same things he asked you when you fell. If it weren’t for that incident, you would never have known the proper thing to ask of someone who might have suffered a concussion.

“No, I think I’m fine. No concussion symptoms. Thanks”

“Oh, alright then. Tho I don’t have to take you to the infirmary.” Shit, probably screwed whatever nice guy cred you just earned. Oh well, since when were you ever known as “the nice guy”. But you should probably try to earn some of that back.

“Here, let me help you up.” You grab hold of each of his hands, his soft, tender hands, and pull him up to his feet. It’s weird to know that now you’ve kind of traded positions from months ago. Now you’re the care-taker, he provider, the strong arm to carry him and- oh cut the crap. You’re so fucking stupid. Haha. You figure you should help him home though. “Let me help you get to your dorm at leatht. Show me to your dorm room.”

He hesitates to answer, probably because he can’t believe you’re being so kind right now. Hey, you wouldn’t believe it either. In fact, you couldn’t believe that he was doing what you’re doing that first incident. You’re just that much of an ass to people. Well hopefully he’ll say no and you won’t have to worry about taking him to his dorm.

“Sure, it’s right this way.”

Sonofabitch. Alright then, just a little longer with this weirdo. Dear god, he’s wearing a fucking cape. You grab hold of him by rapping your arm around his torso, keeping him up on his feet. You like the feel of his body in your arm. You feel his movement, his breathing, a little of his heartbeat. You can feel his rib cage in the hold of your arm and the ribbed feeling of him is, strangely alluring. Ugh, you can’t handle being so enticed by him, so you make an attempt for conversation. Let’s see, what topic is up for grabs? Well, you suppose you could take this opportunity to make a formal apology.

“Tho uhhh...nithe to meet you again.” Yeah, way to make it awkward.

“Oh, uh. Yeah. I really didn’t expect meetin’ you like this.”

“Haha, me neither. But, I gueth it’th ath good a time ath any for me to apologithe.” Okay, here we go.

“What do you mean? It’s not your fault I fell, and you’re bein pretty kind.”

“Well, I have to admit, I’ve been an ath to you. Again.”

“Oh? What do you mean?” Oh how cute, he’s playing dumb. He knows exactly what you’re talking about. Regardless, it must be said.

“Well, I kind of avoided you thethe patht few monthth.” You take a moment to sigh. Boy, do you hate confrontation. “And, I’m jutht not that good at converthation, okay? You theem like a great guy, really. I jutht...” You stop to sigh again. God, why is this so damn hard? However, you did make it to some room in the dorm building. Maybe you won’t have to continue talking about this.

“Oh, well this is my dorm.” He unlocks and opens the door to his room. Then, surprisingly, he appears to invite you in. What the hell? Why? Why would he want that? Hm, maybe he has a thing for you. It’s the only logical conclusion. No one invites a dirtbag into their place for no good reason. Well, might as well accept. It’s the right thing to do. But just when do you ever do the right thing? Ah, whatever. You’ll ask yourself these pressing question of self-evaluation later. Right now, it’s time for some regrettable actions. Wait, no, that could be taken the wrong way. Ugh, just shuttup and enter. You enter the room.

You peer around the side of the dorm that’s neatly kept. You assume it’s Eridan’s side. Then you mention when you had a dorm, “Heh, I had a dorm latht year. It thucked ‘cauthe I wath roomed with the camputh pothead.” You take a look at his notable collection of wizard figurines. What an odd thing. You wouldn’t have thought him to be a wizard enthusiast. Then again, he’s wearing a fucking cape.

“Oh really? That sounds dreadful. Would you like something to drink?” he asks nervously and quickly. He seems to be ashamed of his collection. Well you can mock him for it in a bit. Right now, you’re actually kinda thirsty.

“Uh, thure. What do you have?”

“Well,” he starts and bends down to look into his mini-fridge. God, why does he have to do it like that? Why can’t he crouch down? No, he just has to pop out his glorious ass. You mean, his stupid ass. His stupid, round, vivacious ass. No, you mean- “there’s Faygo,” oh god, are you developing a crush here? No, fuck no, that’s not happening... “cola,” Oh my god you are. What the fuck is wrong with you? You and him? Never. Never ever. You can’t have a crush on him, you just can’t. “crush...”

“I don’t have a crush.” Oh shit, your inner thoughts just became outer thoughts. Fuck, fuck, fuck. You can just feel your face go pale.

He stands up and turns around. “What?” He’s very confused. Quick, cover it up.

“I meant, uh, I’ll have a crush, uh, please. Hehe.” Oh smooth. You are the master of smoothness. You’re so smooth, you should be the face of some smooth guy company. God dammit. And you hate citrus drinks! Eridan bends over to grab your mistakenly chosen drink. God dammit, and that ass! For fuck’s sake does he have to bend over like that?! Hot damn! Fuck, you mean god damn! FUCK!

You desperately take a seat on the bed for a moment of relief from this supremely awkward moment. Eridan then joins you in sitting on the bed and hands you your disgusting orange drink. He opens his and tilts his head back to take a gulp. His adam’s apple shows and it looks cute poking out from the smooth skin of his neck. Ugh, you can’t take much more of this weird tension. You regretfully open your soda and take a drink. Oh disgusting.

“So what were you saying about apologizing?” he finally asks.

Well, this isn’t exactly the conversation you wanted, but it shall distract you from your weird...attractions.

“Oh, jutht that, you know, I’m thorry for being a dickhole about ignoring you and thtuff.”

“Oh. I never even noticed,” He says so smugly and takes another drink. Okay now he’s pissing you off. You just know he’s trying to play the wise ass here. Well, bite back.

“Well, the truth ith that I felt you were a total clash againtht my thtyle tho I made thure you kept your dithtanthe. You jutht showed thigns of having a thing for me and I couldn’t allow it,” you say and grin. You then take a drink complacently. But then you make a sour face because you forgot it was shitty citrus soda.

“How could I possibly like someone as despicable as you?”

“That didn’t theem to thtop you from being all over me and tho gentlemanly after I fell down thothe thtairth.” You take another gratified drink. You remember that it’s gross, but you don’t want to let down your image of being the smug asshole.

“Yeah but I’m the one who knocked you down the stairs in the first place.”

“Shuttup, that wath an acthident and you know it,” with that you decide to get comfy and lay back. “Tho then you felt bad about it and helped me becauthe you’re tho in love with me. I thee right through you.”

“Ha, don’t flatter yourself, Sol. I wouldn’t want you if you were-”

“What? The latht perthon on the planet? That comeback ith tho old and lame.” It really is a lame, overused comeback that’s straight outta movies. Then, suddenly, he turns around and is on top of you. He’s holding himself up to hover over you with his hands on the bed at your sides. This...is really uncomfortable, yet, indescribably arousing.

“You know what I think?” he asks you.

“W-what?”, you answer with your apprehensive voice that blatantly gives off the fact that you’re vulnerable and not in control right now. Dammit, you hate losing control. But in this case, why the hell are you quivering from loving it so much??

“I think you started talkin’ to me, because _you’re_ the one who likes _me_.”

You make a nervous laugh, “Ha, ath if. I wouldn’t, um-”. But wait, what if that is the reason why you talked to him? Oh god, no, it can’t be true! You would never in a million years have a thing for a stupid hipster! Never! Wait-

What, what’s with his eyes? They’re peering right into your very being through your own eyes. They’re an alluring amethyst color that twinkles from the light seeping in through the window. His face is so smooth and lacking imperfection. And his lips, his lips are dry but smooth with a washed out red hue. Oh wait, what’s going on? Those lips are getting eerily closer and closer to yours. What the hell? Why aren’t you doing anything? Push him off! You don’t want this! You know you don’t! 

Oh god, do you want this. You let it happen. His lips briefly meet yours. A light, but very satisfying touch. And it was so brief because of the fact that there is now another guy standing in the doorway of the dorm, staring with eyes wide open with shock and embarrassment. Eridan quickly jumps to his feet and you sit up on the bed in two milliseconds. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. What if it’s his boyfriend? Now you’re gonna get the shit beat out of you, oh shit...

“Holy shit. Um, I’ll just be back later,” the guy says and quietly leaves. Oh thank god. Sollux, you get to live another day.

“Uh, heh. I gueth I should go too.” Yeah, better get the fuck out of there before he comes back. Actually, he was probably just his roomie. Should you stay and finish up the- what the fuck are you talking about? You’re not continuing _any_ of that. Although...no. Nope. Nu-uh.

“Um, okay. Later, I guess.” He says, not really looking at you while you gather your things and start to head out.

“Uh, yeah. Thure.” God fucking dammit, there you go again with committing to later encounters. Ah fuck it, it’s gonna happen anyway. You quickly leave and head out the building.


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a lot of musical reference and jargon in this part.

# Part 5

Okay, so that moment with Sollux was...different. Despite being on top of him, you didn’t expect it to head that direction. Why _did_ it head that direction? Gravity. Damn gravity is always getting you down. Hehe, punny. But seriously, damn gravity made that happen. Sollux didn’t seem to like it either if he left so quickly. However, he said he’d see you later. Maybe he’s alright with it? You gasp. What if you were right? What if he actually likes you just like you said? You were just bluffing, but, what if that’s the absolute truth?

Aw, how sweet. He’s trying to play the “I’m a jerk to you cuz I like you” thing like little children do. Hm, well, now that you’ve uncovered his intentions, should you play hard to get? Yes, you should. Haha, you haven’t felt this scandalous since you stole a kiss on Feferi’s cheek back in 6th grade. Wow, a guy likes you. Heh, you plan on having a lot of fun with this. Ah, but in the meantime, you should probably get going to class. If you happen upon him again, bitch mode is on.

You make your way over to the Fine Arts building. Your class is Instrumental Ensemble, which is fancy talk for small group of instrumentalists playing classical music. Your music course is required for your core curriculum. You needed fine arts credit hours and you figured that since you played the cello all through high school, you decided to join a string ensemble. Today your ensemble will be practicing in the campus auditorium in preparation for tomorrow night’s performance. You’re actually quite eager about this concert because you have a solo. Finally, your superiority will be reflected through your elegant and righteous performance as the clearly best player in your group, regardless of being cello 2 out of the two cellists in your ensemble.

You grab your favorite cello and meet the others on stage. Whenever your group has stage rehearsal, it’s an open event to anyone who wants to listen in on you practicing your concert. You look through the audience quickly to see if there are any familiar faces. Usually the only person you see is Feferi. You scan the very empty audience that is composed of approximately twelve people total dispersed about an auditorium with enough room for five-hundred people. 

In just a quick glance you already spot Fef sitting in the third row. You smile and wave. She makes her signature cute, “--EXCIT—ED” grin and enthusiastically waves back to you. You regain your composure and continue making your way to your seat with your cello in hand. But as you turn back to the direction of your chair, you notice another face in the audience. Oh no. oh no oh no oh no ohnononono. Not now. This was supposed to be your fucking time to shine! His presence will fuck up your cool! It’s okay, Eridan, just focus on your glorious solo. It will come out PERFECT.

Actually, there could be a silver lining to this shitstain in the sky. Perhaps you can take advantage of this opportunity to impress him with your enchanting musical talent. Yes, you shall woo him with your harmonious siren song that will be just calling him to the deadly shores of your rejection. Yes, this is a most exquisite opportunity for causing turmoil and insecurity in this peasant.

You proudly put your chin up and march to your position. But regrettably, you trip over a small, little crack in the stage’s wooden floor. You fall down hard and drop your cello. Luckily, someone was quick enough to grab the instrument before it crashed to the ground. Unfortunately, no one was able to catch you before making your painfully embarrassing embrace with the floorboards. You quickly hop back on your feet, your face all flushed with embarrassment. You look out into the audience and see the bulk of the small amount who attended laughing at your misfortune. But you see that Feferi isn’t laughing, she’s just shrugging with an awkward smile. You can just hear her saying, “Just keep moving forward”. You look over at Sollux and are surprised to see that he isn’t laughing either. Neither is the girl he’s sitting next to. She’s smiling but not laughing. Sollux seems to be pouting. Strange. But at least he’s not laughing like you fully expected he would be at your expense.

You finally make your way to your chair and prepare to play by extending the cello’s end pin, setting it down on the rock stop and flipping through your music to the first piece. Ah, you love the fugue in this piece. You just love when music gets chaotic and all over the place like a battleground. Yes, you like to imagine fugues as battlegrounds of music, and you the commander of your army, leading them to victory against the other instruments.

You strum your bow gracefully across the strings of your cello and make the most beautiful tones that just compliment the harmony of the piece. Then, your music arrives at the fugue. Your group diverges from the single melody into a fusion of several independent melodies that clash and intertwine into an invigorating wave of music. Your part consists of arpeggiating tones and then trills between the second and third finger, your favorite trills. Just feeling the music emanate from your f-holes to the open auditorium gives you chills and an overwhelming feeling of power.

Then, the music settles down to one melody once again. And then, it settles further to just one violinist playing a solo to top off the piece. Perfection. The small crowd claps and cheers, mainly for the violinist at the end. Don’t worry, Eridan. You’ll soon enough have your time to shine just the same way. Your ensemble pretends to not pay much attention to the cheering and discusses whether or not you all should go over it again. Unanimously the group decides that it was perfectly fine and you can move on to the next piece. This next piece would include your solo.

You mentally prepare yourself to ensure that this solo will go without flaw. You need to impress Sollux. You must win his heart, and then crush it in your palms.

You flip your music to the next piece, the audience quiets down, the first violinist gives the beat and you all start playing. It starts off quiet, very subtle and mesmerizing. Then, the music builds up. You gradually get louder, heading towards the drop in the music that will be your solo. The music starts breaking from long notes into shorter and faster notes. You get ready, because this is it. The music climaxes to be very loud and the rest of the ensemble break off into silence. But you continue on into your solo.

You concentrate hard on your fingers hitting every note correctly on the finger board, and your bow hand to have very swift motion to bring the sound out clearly. You feel so empowered. You steadily play your part with confidence and it shows through. You look out from the corner of your eye and can make out Sollux’s facial expression to be that of awestruck. Heh, you’ve broken through. Now to just finish off this solo. You speed up the music as there is an accelerando towards the end of your part to bring in the rest of the group. Soon enough, the rest of the group has their instruments playing along with the melody at fast speed. Then you all speed up a little more as you head to the end of the piece. The end of the piece is an appropriate housetop accent over a chord.

The crowd cheers and applauses. You think some people even tried giving a standing ovation, including Fef who is just clapping so enthusiastically with such a big grin on her face that it even gets you to make a smirk. You look over a little to the right and see Sollux still sitting with his arms crossed. But his friend seems to be standing and clapping. She seems nice. You wonder if she’s his girlfriend. Part of you wishes this is true. You’d love to be a home wrecker for once. But, at the same time, part of you wishes this is just complete speculation and you’re unsure why it would even matter to you. Oh well.

You notice Sollux get up and start heading out of the auditorium. The girl who was with him seems to be trying to coax him to staying, but she cannot persuade him and she exits the auditorium with him. Suddenly your mood of triumph fades over and you slump back in your chair. Odd, you have no idea what came over you to kill the mood so quickly. No matter, your group still has two pieces to go over. You straighten up and your ensemble proceeds with the rest of your concert music. Your feeling through the rest of rehearsal is not the same as in the beginning. The audience is still there, minus Sollux and guest, Fef is still there, your group seems joyous to be playing so well. There’s really no reason to feel different. Yet, you do. Humph. You chug on through rehearsal and then head back to your dorm when it’s over.

However, on the way to your dorm, you spot Sol with his female friend walking in your direction. You try to quickly get out of their path, but then you are halted by Fef’s shining face. You cringe as you don’t want to get caught up with Sollux again so soon.

“Hey Eridan!!!” She says excitedly. “You were great!”

“Oh, uh, I was?”, You say as you anxiously glance over to see that Sollux is approaching closer. “Uh, thanks”.

Feferi notices you looking over and notices what you’re looking at. “Oh my glub. Is that him?? The one you love?!” She asks with such eager curiosity.

“Uh...”, You try to resist answering because you just know she’s going to want to get involved somehow.

“Oh. My. GLUB!!! I wanna meet him!” She cheers and grabs you by the arm. She pulls you toward Sollux and his friend.

“Wait, no. What are you doing?! Oh, glub me!” You shriek. No. No no no nonono!!! NO!!!

“Hehe, thup Ed?”

Fuck.  



	6. Six

# Part 6

After you hastily left Eridan’s dorm, you avoid encountering his roommate on the way out of the building. That was a little too much for you to be comfortable with. You try being nice to a guy and making amends and you end up almost making out with him instead. What the hell, Sollux? You aren’t like that. You’re not the type to become so physically attracted to anyone. Ugh, and of all people, too. You have an array of types of people you encounter and the one you develop an infatuation for is the hipster boy with weird hair and fashion sense. You moan in disgust as you walk across the campus forum.

No, you refuse to accept that you feel any sort of passion for this weirdo. Besides, that was all him working that kiss back there. Oh fuck. Now you’re calling it an actual kiss. Uggghhhhhhhh.

While in your delirium brought on by the kis- YOU MEAN UNWARRANTED HARASSMENT, you didn’t notice that Aradia was approaching you.

“Hello, Sollux”, she says with a grin. But you are still in your mental, and maybe a little sexual, frustration so you unknowingly ignore her. In turn, she gets louder, “Sollux!” You snap out of your daze.

“Oh, woah. Hey, AA. I didn’t thee you there.”

“Yeah...it seems like you were really concentrated on something. Something going on?”

“Uh...nothing of importanthe,” you say, trying to shoo away her curiosity but you know your attempts are futile.

“I’ve never seen you so out of it over something ‘not important’. In fact, I don’t think you’ve ever even let yourself be so disorientated. So what’s wrong?”

“I’ve been unfocuthed before. You jutht don’t thee it becauthe it’th alwayth in privathy, where it should be.”

“That’s not the question I asked,” she squints at you.

“Well I’m not talking about it right now.”

After staring at you inquisitively for a few more seconds, she lets up and shrugs. “Alright then. You doing anything right now?”

“No, not ti-”

“Great! You’re coming with me to see the orchestra rehearse in the auditorium.”

“What?! But I don’t wanna!”

“Too bad! You won’t open up and we need to spend time together. C’mon.” She grabs your hand and leads you off towards the campus auditorium. This is bullshit.

You take your seats towards one side of the auditorium and sit a few rows back from the stage. You let out a sigh and Aradia nudges you in the side. You make a disgruntled groan and sit up straight. When you sit up you freeze. Walking across the stage you see Eridan with a large violin. It’s called a cello, isn’t it? Whatever. You didn’t know he played any instrument, let alone one in orchestra. Speaking of which, this is a very small orchestra. There’s like 6 people up there and you don’t see a conductor or maestro person.

During your longing stare at Eridan on stage, Aradia notices what you’re looking at.

“Is that the guy you talked about?!” She asks.

“Uh...” Oh god, please just let me leave. For some reason your legs listen to your request and you get up out of your seat to start leaving. But you know you won’t make it far. Aradia grabs you by the shoulders and sits you back down. You cross your arms and slump in your chair with a face of grumpiness. At that moment, Eridan has spotted you. Oh shit, how could this get worse?

Moments later, he’s trying to walk across the stage proudly and douche-y but he trips up on something and slams to the ground. Pffffhhahahahaha!!! Damn, how could this get _better_?? For a few seconds you’re laughing hysterically. But Aradia jabs you in the side with her elbow. “Don’t be a jerk, Sollux,” she says. Then she makes a smiling face by the time Eridan is looking back at y’all to hide the dispute. But you have still have a face of dissatisfaction.

Eridan continues on in embarrassment to his chair on stage. The only thing to get you through this is if something else funny happens. Maybe he’ll spontaneously combust in front of everyone. Haha, maybe if you concentrate enough...

Music starts emitting from the instruments on stage and you are suddenly pulled in to what’s happening. The sounds sooth your mind and you relax. The music has a strange effect on you and you just want to relax in your seat. Aradia notices your comfort and smiles at you.

Then, the music breaks into disorganization and your comfort is gone. Fuck, that was weird. You’ve never felt so serene and at ease before. You’re used to your fragmented mind constantly contradicting and fighting itself. But for a few moments, you felt all together. Hm, you should harness the powers of this “classical music” for further relaxation.

The music settles again to stability and so does your mind. Ahhh, you relax in your chair once more. Then, the music stops. Oh, damn. Well, guess it’s over. You try getting up to leave again but Aradia grabs you again. Apparently one song isn’t enough. You sigh.

Another song begins and once again you’re in comfort and tranquility. Then the music gets louder and you feel excited and adrenaline. Still stable, but excited. You feel pumped already by the climax of the music.

But then you’re surprised. You notice that all the music stops except for Eridan playing his cello. He plays so smoothly and quickly, you had no idea he was this talented. You thought the limit of his personal talents were in taking filtered pictures of food or having large collections like that weird wizard figurine collection.

Despite the rest of the players stopping, Eridan continues to promote your serenity with his music. You are in love with his fingers. Not in that way, you perv. You love seeing his slender, pale fingers hitting the instrument to make the correct tones so quickly. Oh no. You’re feeling attraction towards him. And this time, there’s no part of your mind to conflict against it. He’s tamed you, and you love every bit of it. You feel euphoric and passion is flowing through you for this boy on stage. While he’s playing, you cannot deny it. You want him, and you want him bad.

The others on stage join in and start playing along with Eridan. You can only sit there as Eridan is tethering your heart to his fingers. The music stops. You have to get out of here. Everyone else is cheering, but you’re trying to make a hasty escape. Aradia attempts to persuade you to stay but you’re not taking it any longer. You have to get the hell out of that auditorium.

Once outside, you slump over with your hands on your knees for support. Oh god, you admitted it. You weak, little shrimp. You may not have openly admitted it to anyone, but you admitted it to yourself. You’re _in love_. Ugh, you shudder just from saying those gross words in your head. You must keep these thoughts completely shrouded from the world. No one can ever know about this.

“I told you things would only get worse”, Aradia says exiting the auditorium. She has a smug smile across her face.

“You thaid that would only happen if I didn’t apologithe, and I tried to!”

“Well then you must have gone about it wrong. I told you this was a year for changes. You must break, no, _destroy_ your hard exterior and release into the world your true spirit.” She says with her eyes closed, smiling, and her hands joined in front of her chest. You stare at her confused and slightly disturbed.

“...I don’t have thpirit” is all you reply.

“Ugh, you’re really a piece of work, aren’t you?” She glares at you with her hands rested on her hips.

“Yeth. And I really don’t underthtand why you perthitht with me.”

“Well, I’ll persist till you learn to accept your feelings! C’mon!” Wait, feelings? Does she know? Ugh, of course she knows, she’s Aradia. She always seems to know a little more than you do. And that’s how she always manages to keep you in line. She’s the only one that understands you and how you’re feeling. Maybe you should allow her to take control of this matter, you’ll probably get to some resolution much faster than whatever you were doing on your own.

Let’s face it, you’re not the best at solving social situations. You’re just not the social type, and when faced with a situation too difficult for you to solve unlike one of your programming codes, you opt out and just ignore the problem the best you can. And that would’ve worked this time, but something keeps bringing you and Eridan back together every damn time. You can’t escape his unexplained pull on you. That’s it, you’re transferring colleges, no more bullshit. It’s the only solution. God dammit, what are you talking about? You can’t change schools just because of some boy. Ugh, you sound like a father talking to some hormonal teenage girl right now. And the worst part is that both roles are played by yourself. You really need a therapist.

So where exactly is Aradia leading you anyway? You never even bothered to ask. You guess you just finally submitted to her counseling. After walking a short while, you both take a seat in a bench off to the end of the open field in front of the fine arts building. She forces you down in the bench and sits silently next to you, looking off toward the building.

“Uh, what are we doing here?” You finally break the silence to ask.

“We’re going to take care of this. Right now.”

You sigh. “There’th nothing to take care of. It’th a minor problem that’ll retholve on it’th own.”

“Love is never a minor problem!”  
“Wh-what?!” You jump in your seat and you don’t know why. You expected her to know more than you. You guess it’s just the fact that she said “love”. Do you really love him? It can’t be.

“Or any strong emotion. I know you well enough to know when you’re feeling so strongly about someone.”

“Tho...then what exactly are you planning to do?” You ask nervously. Now you’re a little fearful.

“We’re waiting for your crush to come out so we can confront him face to face,” She says and smiles, still staring at the doors of the fine arts building.

“I never thaid he’th my crush! I never even confirmed that I tho much ath _like_ him!”

“True, but you never denied it either,” She says and winks at you.

“Fffff”, you are so flustered you can’t even make a response. You just kind of frantically shake your fists.

After a while, Aradia silences you and looks toward the doors of the building. “Here he comes. Let’s go”. She grabs you by the arm and once again she is leading you to something greatly undesired.

As you two walk up, you’re mumbling to her “no”, “don’t make me do thith”, “I will hurt you”, and “thith ith thtupid”. But she shushes you after each phrase and continues walking toward Eridan who has now been joined with a female friend. First you think _oh yes, he has a girlfriend_. But then you realize the possible problem that can be caused by this probability and think _oh shit, he has a girlfriend_.

You and Aradia finally meet him and his cute female friend. You are so awkward. Aradia nudges you a little.

“Hehe, thup Ed?,” you nervously say. This is gonna suck...


	7. Seven

# Part 7

You stand awkwardly with Feferi by your side, staring into the eyes of Sollux. You nervously stay very quiet. C’mon, Eridan, you’re braver than this. Say something. The awkward silence is killing you. You’re unsure of what to say with your best friend standing right next to you and some other girl who you don’t know beside Sollux. You’re not too fond of large groups. It seems as though this group could accumulate into an even larger one in a short period of time. You really want to evade the whole situation before it gets worse. By this time you realize that you’ve been standing very quietly staring at Sollux. Not a word has been said since Sollux greeted you.

Feferi gets tired of waiting for you to open your mouth so she takes it upon herself to continue the conversation.

“Hello, I’m Feferi, Eridan’s friend,” she introduces herself and reaches out a hand to shake Sollux’s. He seems hesitant at first, staring at her hand, almost looking confused by the notion. Then he seems to come out of a daze and shakes her hand.

“Uh, hey. I’m Tholluckth,” is all he responds.

Then Feferi shakes hands with Aradia. They both are the only ones eager to be here right now. But you look at Sollux and you just see remorse.

“And I’m Sollux’s friend, Aradia. Nice to meet you, Feferi,” She says and smiles as she shakes hands with your friend.

Oh god this is so unbearably awkward.

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Eridan,” She says, turned towards you.

“Salutations,” god you’re so weird. Whatever, you need to make a good first impression and it’s always best to start with good vocabulary to show your intelligence.

“Sollux has talked about you,” Aradia begins to say.

“Oh has he?” you question, with a smirk of gloating accomplishment.

“No I-”, Sollux tries to intervene but is immediately stopped by a forceful nudge in the side by his friend.

“So then I thought we could all hang out this weekend somewhere. Maybe a movie? You’re invited, too, Feferi,” Aradia continues. Aw shit, you know that Feferi is not gonna dec-

“We’d love to!” Feferi exclaims excitedly. You knew it. You have been dragged into yet another situation you really don’t want to be in.

You look over at Sollux who is sporting an eerily seductive grin. What the fuck? Then he winks at you. You have no idea what game he’s playing, but if it’s to freak you out, he’s doing it well. Though you have to admit, your manhood shivered a little from that look. Ugh, gross.

You cross your arms and look to Aradia and Feferi who are discussing the details of your little group’s meet-up. You’re not even paying attention; you’re just imagining all the worst possible scenarios in your head. What if Fef gets sick and you’re stuck with Sollux and his friend? What if Sollux tries hitting on Fef? What if he falls in love with her??? You’d have to start all over from scratch to get him to love you again. Wait, that’s the opposite of what you want. All you know is that it’d be really fucking annoying with his stupid face coming up every damn time you talk to your gal pal. Hold up. Did you just say “gal pal”? God dammit, Eridan.

Anyway, back to whatever is happening in this convo. You’re really hoping no date was actually settled thanks to conflicting schedules or something.

“So it’s settled! Movies on Saturday at 8! I’m so glad that all of our schedules work out!” Feferi proclaims.

Son of a fucking bitch.

After Feferi finishes exchanging phone numbers on little cut sheets of paper with Aradia, you leave alongside her in the opposite direction of Sollux and Aradia. This is just _terrific_. You’re curious to see Sollux walking away so you quickly glance back, but just as you do, so does he. At first, you’re stunned. You don’t like awkwardly getting locked in eye contact with someone. But then, you change to bitch mode and flip him your middle finger as you walk away. His face is shocked at first, but then he retaliates by shooting you the bird as well. Then you both angrily flip your heads back around.

Yeah, this date – you mean this get-together – is gonna be just swell.


	8. Eight

# Part 8

“Hehe, thup Ed?,” you nervously say. You hate when Aradia pulls you into such stupid situations. It started when she dragged you to some charity concert last year. You thought it would be loads of fun because you were hanging out with your new best friend. But you were terribly wrong. You didn't realize it was a charity _rock_ concert. And you also didn’t realize you were standing right in the middle of the designated mosh pit area. Ugh, took you weeks to build up the courage to stand in crowds again. You shudder from the memory.

Oh hey, the cute one is introducing herself to you.

“Hello, I’m Eridan’s friend, Feferi,” she says cheerily and extends a hand to you. You’re not used to this gesture at all so you take a moment to just stare at her hand in front of you. How should you approach this? Do you use a firm grip or a loose one since she’s a girl? You remember being told a long time ago that men shake with confidence and magnitude. But you also remember that first impressions are what count. You don’t want to come off as some deranged brute squeezing innocent girl’s hands so tight. Hm, what to do, what to do?

Ah fuck it, the opinion of an acquaintance to that cape-wearing fairy queen matters not to you. You shake Feferi’s hand in a “whatever” way. But you spent so much thought process on the etiquette in handshaking that you forgot that you haven’t introduced yourself in return yet.

“Uh, hey. I’m Tholluckth,” you say awkwardly. You’re obviously very smooth with the ladies.

Then she starts shaking hands with Aradia. You grimace at the thought of seeing Eridan every time you meet with your best friend. That possibility is just horrendous. Damn, Eridan is gonna run you away from the only good friend you’ve got.

As Feferi is shaking hands with Aradia, your friend says, “And I’m Sollux’s friend, Aradia. Nice to meet you, Feferi.” Aradia is always so friendly and it doesn’t even faze her if she’s unsuccessful in making a new friend. She’ll just continue greeting new people. You wish you were as approachable.

Then your friend greets Eridan. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Eridan,” she says, smiling. Ugh, you don’t like seeing your friend being so nice to that poser.

“Salutations,” Eridan replies. And there is Exhibit A of him being a stuck up priss. God, you hate nothing more than a freshman that thinks he’s better than everyone. Actually there are a lot of things you hate, but to keep up the level of drama and tension, you’ll just say it’s the thing you hate most.

“So, Sollux has talked about you,” Aradia says. WHAT??

“Oh has he?” Eridan asks and smirks at you. Oh hell no, this isn’t happening.

“No I-” you begin. But before you can even defend your honor, Aradia jabs you in the side with her pointy elbow that hurts like a bitch. Great, now Eridan thinks he has you in his hands...but wait. Maybe you can turn it around. Hm.

“So then I thought we could all hang out this weekend somewhere. Maybe a movie? You’re invited, too, Feferi,” your friend continues. Dammit, now she’s planning some kinda weird double date. Except no one’s dating anyone. What do you call those? You’ve never had one. Double friend date? Whatever, it’s a nonchalant get-together. Well actually it’s much more distressing to you and possibly Eridan than “nonchalant”.

“We’d love to!” Feferi accepts excitedly. You had no doubt that this sweet girl would reject another sweet girl’s offer. Ugh, girls.

You figure you should try to have a little fun with this. You can utilize the fact that Eridan thinks you like him to thwart him. Yes, perfect plan.

Eridan looks your way and you immediately respond by giving him the most seductive look in your stock. He displays a look of confused disgust. Easy now, Sollux. Don’t want to overdo it. You just want to turn him on a little bit. You believe that it is working. You top the treat with a delicious wink and Eridan turns away blushing and crossing his arms in frustration. You’ve got him now. Haha, well played, Sollux. The ball’s back in your court. What’s that saying from again? Baseball or some other ball-centered sport you think.

Oh this is great. There are so many ways this “date” can go about in your favor. There’s even the possibility of running off with his female friend, forever ruining his life and friendship. Devious. But you’re not that evil to play with an innocent girl’s heart that way. That’s high school bullshit that you won’t stoop to. You could also possibly heavily make out with him, ruining the date for Feferi and Aradia. Hm...wait a fucking second. That’s not what you want! The fuck, brain! Your own damn bipolar mind is always fucking you over. And he almost gets away with it, too. Just pulling a fucking reach-around on you without you even knowing. No! I don’t care if it’s just courtesy, I didn’t ask for it!

So what are Feferi and Aradia talking about?

“So it’s settled! Movies on Saturday at 8! I’m so glad that all of our schedules work out!” Feferi proclaims.

Oh yeah. Damn.

The two female friends exchange phone numbers. You don’t bother to give your phone number to anyone. The less opportunity for communication with the purple-eyed one the better. After your friend finishes up the conversation with the other girly character, you both begin to leave separate ways from Eridan and Feferi. And then you have an itching need to turn around and see Eridan.

You fall victim to your desire and turn your head as you’re walking away. And once again, your damn indecisive mind allows the dumbass side to win this decision, causing yet another regrettable action because just as you turned around, so did Eridan. You are startled to see his eyes looking right into yours. What the hell is with him? Then, he flips you off. The little fucking bastard. He’s lucky you’re pretty much Aradia’s bitch or you would turn right around and beat the shit out of him. For now, throwing him the finger right back is all you can do. Then you both uniformly flip your heads right back around.

Well, this little “date” is going to be interesting.


	9. Nine

# Part 9

A few days pass by and you have arrived at “date night”. Of course, you are quoting what Feferi described it as. You, however, see it as unexpected torture from a trusted friend. You look in the mirror as you fix up your collar. Your attire for tonight consists of a pair of fitted khaki pants, a nice long-sleeve, button up, off-white shirt, and a purple vest to wear over it. You look like a hip guy from private school. Hm, a little too uptight. You untuck your shirt from your pants before they’re too wrinkled and roll up your sleeves to your elbows. Perfect.

You have a seat on your bed still looking at yourself in the mirror. You let out a sigh and close your eyes as you’re suddenly met with a rush of melancholy. Whether or not you like it, this is actually your first time going out for fun. Feferi is usually caught up with her new friends she’s made at college. As for you, the only person you can say has become a new friend is Karkat and he’s too grumpy to want to hang out with you.

Maybe tonight will be good for you. Maybe something will be different and maybe you and Sollux can put aside your differences and you’ll have a new circle of friends. As much as you hate your first impression of Sollux, deep down all you wish for is some friendship. And even deeper, with Sollux, you kind of wish...

Karkat interrupts your train of thought when he comes through the door.

“Hey, assclown,” Karkat says and drops his bag on his bed. He’s standing beside his bed and looks down at you with your face of depression. “What’s wrong?” He asks and his mood changes. He does this from time to time. His default emotion is anger and frustration. But when he notices something’s troubling you, he can be the most sincere friend ever, with an overtone of frustration.

“Nothing, it’s just tonight that I’m anxious about”, you sigh.

He takes a seat next to you on your bed. “You’ll be fine” he says and pats you just once on the back. You smile because his sentiments, though very minimal, somehow always cheer you up. He gets up and heads to his own bed. “I’m sure he’ll ask you out on a second date,” he says and lies on his bed after shoving off his things that he just put there.

You choke up on that last thing he said. You didn’t even think about that. A second??? Date?? How much does he know? You nervously look at your watch and notice that it’s about time to go.

“I gotta go now,” you say and hastily head out the door after grabbing your phone and favorite scarf.

“Good luck,” he says to you as you leave with his normal grouchy, indifferent tone.

You leave the residence hall and make your way to the school’s front parking lot. You feel the slight autumn cold and wrap your scarf around your neck. Feferi informed you that the parking lot is where you would all rendezvous and Aradia will drive everyone to the movie theater. As you’re making your way to the parking lot, you feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety that just keeps getting heavier the closer you get. Dammit, you better not get sick and puke in her car. The last thing you want to do is something so terrible that you’d end up with more than one enemy tonight.

You arrive at the parking lot and find Aradia to be there already. She’s alone too. Maybe you don’t have to worry about Sollux tonight. You walk up to Aradia who’s sporting a cheery smile and a nice red sweater with jeans.

Oh no, what if it ends up being just you two? You’re really not good at one-on-one interaction. It’s okay, calm down. You’re a very fascinating person who has a lot of conversational topics to offer. You tell yourself these things to raise your confidence and usually that helps.

“Hey, Eridan”, Aradia says happily and waves.

“Hey, Aradia,” you decide to use her full first name for now. You only shorten people’s names when you’ve become close enough. Now in the case of Sol, well, he just doesn’t deserve that respect. You’ll shorten his name as much as you damn please. You’ve even given him cute nicknames like “asshole” and “mustard eyes”. Cuz really, what’s up with those piss-yellow eyes? You have beautiful violet irises fit for royalty. You ask Aradia, “Is Sol not comin’?”

“He better”, she says and her face changes from cheery to displeased. Yeesh, this girl’s not one to mess with. Then she changes back to a happy mood and asks, “Are you excited?” You are surprised by the question. Why would you be excited? You’re just hanging out. Maybe she’s just weird, so you ought to give an answer without question.

“Oh, sure. Very excited,” you answer. You fibbed about the “very” part. No wait, you fibbed the entire answer. You’re not excited at all. You’d rather be back in your dorm, lying on your bed reading an enticing wizardry novel.

Aradia grins, “Oh, _very_ excited, huh?” She tilts her head and leans towards you in an eery way. What’s with that grin?? You find her expression greatly suspicious...and a little creepy.

Then you hear footsteps coming from behind you. And...laughter? It sounds like Feferi. But another, fainter laugh is with hers...oh god, no.

You turn around to see Sollux’s arm on her shoulder and chuckling beside the giggly Feferi. Oh he is just crossing the line now. If he thinks that he can just jump between your friendship and try breaking you two apart, he’s got another thing coming. You decide now that it’s more important than ever, to steal his heart, then shatter it to pieces. You must crush him. Tonight.

“What’s so funny?” you ask, directed more to Feferi.

“I was talking to Sollux about-” Feferi begins to explain but is cut off by Sollux.

“Oh it was nothing,” Sollux says and Feferi makes a confused frown at him but then shrugs seeming to realize that it wasn’t that important to tell.

“So are we going?” Feferi asks happily.

“Everyone in!” Aradia excitedly commands as she gets into the driver’s seat of her small, old, roughed up car. Everyone obeys and gets in.

You head to the backseat, expecting to sit with Feferi. But Sollux beats you to the door and exclaims, “I call the backseat with Feferi”. What the hell kinda game is he playing?

But Feferi rejects him, saying, “Oh no, I _must_ be in the front seat.” She then proceeds to wink at Aradia. What on earth is your best friend up to? Sollux just shrugs and gets ready to crawl into the backseat first. But then he looks toward the side mirror and groans. He backs out of the car and holds the door open as he motions you to go in first. Haha, he’s totally her bitch. You go into the car in the most snobby way possible. He then enters your behind. You mean, he enters behind you.

Everyone is situated in the car and Aradia drives out of the parking lot onto the road. During the whole trip, Aradia’s driving skills are equivalent to that of a blind psychopath who just escaped the mental institution, scaring the living hell out of you and Feferi. She runs red lights and barely touches the brakes. Sollux just grins whenever you react by gripping the handle bar above you.

Finally, you reach safety at the movie theater. Both you and Feferi get out of the car in a queasy disorientation. You grab hold of each other for some stability whimpering in gratefulness to be alive.

Sollux and Aradia easily exit the car and look at the display you and Feferi are making. But after calming down, all four of you go to buy tickets. Feferi and Aradia oblige to pay for them. You find that greatly unusual that the girls want to pay. Not that you were expecting you nor sollux would be paying, but it’s still striking you as strange. You stand aside with Sollux, crossing your arms, not speaking at all. You feel a small bump on your arm. Apparently his arm is touching yours. You want to shuffle aside away from the physical contact. But you figure that Sollux doesn’t notice that you two are touching since he’d never do it intentionally. You let the touching go undisturbed. It actually feels... kinda nice.

After waiting for a couple minutes, Aradia and Feferi motion you two to go with them inside to find seats. You break away from Sollux’s arm and follow your friend. Sollux follows close behind. In fact, a little too close. Feferi and Aradia already went inside, letting the door close behind them on you. As you opened the door, you felt Sollux’s breath on the back of your neck. You shivered from the sensation and went in. You’re unsure of how you felt about that.

All of you go into theater 14 and head up the steps to find good seats about in the middle of the theater. Aradia sits down first and then Feferi after her three seats away. This is a very peculiar setup. You head towards the seat to the left of Feferi, on the side away from Aradia, and Sollux does the same but to Aradia’s right side. The setup would look like Sollux next to Aradia, then two empty seats, and then Feferi and yourself last. But before you even make it to the other side of Feferi, she puts her leg out to block you and pats the seat to her right. You give her a confused look, but then you accept her demand and sit in the seat. After you take your seat, Sollux takes his. _Right next to you_.

“Feferi, would you like to go with me to get popcorn?”, Aradia asks. You think you notice her make a subtle wink. But you’re unsure because of the dark lighting in the theater.

“Sure!” Feferi answers and gets up to leave with Aradia. You are greatly suspicious of those two. You watch them giddily leave the theater. Then you turn your head forward and rest back in your seat.

This is greatly uncomfortable to be alone in this dim room with Sollux. You both are sitting back with your arms crossed. You’d move aside to distance yourself from him, but then Feferi would come back and get mad at you for sitting in her seat anyway. Sollux doesn’t seem too interested in talking. What if he actually does like Feferi? Maybe he has nothing to say to you because he wants her.

You hate to admit it, but that realization made you die a little on the inside. Not only could you lose your friend to this asshole, but you kind of...felt something for him, too.

Bah, he doesn’t deserve your attention anyway. You could find any other guy on campus and he’d be a better candidate than the shit sitting next to you.

You let out a small sigh from your thoughts as a preview for some romantic comedy comes up on the screen. Great, more ironic shit to rub it in your face that you’re just not boyfriend material. Suddenly you feel miserable and slouch in your seat. You let down your tensed arms and relax them on the arm rests. When you let down your right arm, however, Sollux’s hand landed on top of yours. You look down at it in surprise.

Oh god, is this gonna be one of those cheesy moments where your hand accidentally meets his and then you both look into each others eyes and embrace each other? Because you really weren’t looking for that shit to go down. Not with him.

You look up to your right at Sollux. You give him a look that says, “That’s meant to be for _my_ arm”.

“Oh pith off. You don’t own the arm retht”, he reacts angrily. Oh good, it’s not a cheesy romance movie scene after all.

“I had my hand on it first, obviously,” you respond, looking down at your hand that is definitely touching the cup-holder and his hand is just touching the back of yours.

“Fine, I’ll jutht keep my hand here”. He blatantly presses his hand against yours in attempt to make you uncomfortable with it.

“Go ahead, I don’t mind because I have the arm rest.”

“Jutht give me the damn arm retht!” he shouts. Now the other people in the audience are looking at you both.

“Make me!” You retort, neglecting the onlookers.

And with that, Sollux tackles you out of your chair onto the disgusting floor of the theater. He pins your arms down.

“Ha! I’ve got you!” he mocks.

You groan and try to make a move with the small amount of mobility you have between two rows of seats and with him pinning you. You decided to kick your knee up behind him, kneeing him in the ass. He falls forward, his chest onto your face. Oh gross, you can feel his ribs on your cheeks. You grab him by the waist and make both of you roll so that you are now on top. Well isn’t this familiar? You failed to get your arms out from under him though so now you’re stuck pressed up on top of him.

“Get off of me!” He shouts.

“I’m tryin’!”

He seems to notice why you’re unable to get up and lifts up his lower body so you can retrieve your arms. As he does this, you can feel his lower area pressing against you, particularly the crotch area. As soon as you get your arms out from under him, he drops back down. The motion catches you off balance and you fall back down onto him with your hands on his chest. You pick up your head to find your eyes meeting with his. His dazzling eyes make you freeze and just stare into them. Weird how in even a dim room, his eyes have that shine. What is the scientific reasoning behind this?

You break out of your daze and put your legs on either side of him so you can get up. You lift up into a position where you’re straddling him and your hands are now on his abdomen. As you’re about to get up, Sollux grabs your shirt at the chest and pulls you down. He lifts himself up and brings his face to yours. You’re frozen in shock. And then, he presses his lips against yours. Your eyes widen in shock at first. Then you steadily slip into the euphoria you feel in his kiss and close your eyes.

You both are just sitting there on the theater floor, you sitting in his lap, locked in time. It feels like your lips were meant to meet. As unfavorable of a place for a first real kiss it is, you can’t help but think that his lips were meant for yours. And you hate that fact. Why this douchebag? Of all the people in the world who are better candidates for your heart, why this asshole? Oh but you know you love it. For the moment you forget about all of that and enjoy this.

You pull closer to Sollux and wrap your arms around him. His chest is now pressed against you and you’re tilting your head down to reach him. You slide your hand up his back to the back of his head. You comb your fingers through his hair and hold him close to you. And then you hear an interrupting “ahem”.

Startled, you and Sollux quit smoochin’ and turn to look at the theater employee shining a light into your faces.

“I’m gonna have to ask you two to leave,” he says sternly. You see Feferi and Aradia standing behind him at the stairs. They’re both giggling behind their hands.

You shamefully stand up and dust off the crap that stuck to you from the dirty floor. Sollux gets up and does the same but in a more half-assed, don’t-give-a-shit kinda way. Then you both exit the theater with the employee and your friends following behind.

Once out of the movie theater, Aradia and Feferi break out into hysterical laughter. But after a few moments, they regain control of themselves and look at you and Sollux with starry eyes.

“What are you two looking at?” Sollux asks, crossing his arms and looking at them with a frustrated but blushing face. You then wonder if your own face is blushing. You sense the heat in your cheeks and determine that you are, in fact, blushing like a schoolgirl.

You cross your arms as well and avoid eye contact with anyone. Now you just want to leave. You are so ashamed. Of all people. _Him_. And you fucking enjoyed it.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just a good thing that theater guy came in before you did anything more...” Aradia answers Sollux and then giggles with Feferi.

You and Sollux both blush even more.

“Can we please just go home now?” you beg, trying to hide your face in your scarf. Sollux pulls his hood over his head.

Aradia agrees that it’s no fun out in the cold air. You all get back in her car and drive to the school. You and Sollux don’t say a word to each other. He just sits in his seat, arms crossed, looking straight forward. And you are looking out the window, trying to avoid all of reality. You don’t understand how you both ended up in the backseat again, but you did and that just makes this more difficult.

Although you want this to be the end, to never see Sollux again. You can’t help but ask in your mind, _what happens now?_


	10. Ten

# Part 10

After a few more days, the dreaded day finally arrived. You’re supposed to don your best casual attire and show up in the campus parking lot with a smile on your face as if you don’t hate the idea of being anywhere with the worst person you could ever have the dishonor of meeting. And then you’re expected to enjoy yourself the entire 2 hours you’re stuck sitting just seats away from him.

You have put on your nicest, grey skinny jeans along with the pair of sneakers you haven’t ruined yet that are an army green kind of color and a hoodie that’s half black and half white. You figure that since you’re wearing a jacket, there’s no need to put on a nice shirt that won’t be seen so you just wear one of your many plain tees. This one matches your shoes. But that was just by coincidence.

“Ugh”, you grunt and lie back on your bed. How is this night gonna go down? You mean, by the end of the movie, are you going to be closer with Eridan and Feferi, or are you going to split further from Aradia? Eugh, or will you end up closer to Eridan? You’d really rather keep your current relationship the way it is. Actually, you’d prefer if it went back to not existing at all. But this “date” or whatever you call it is pretty counterproductive towards that objective.

As you are lying there, you begin to wonder. You wonder what it actually would be like with him. Deep, deep inside, you long for closure to that would-be kiss. That millisecond of contact wasn’t nearly enough for you. The deepest part of you that’s been growing and you’ve been fighting ever since the day you made the mistake of speaking to him desires to embrace his lips with yours. And then you shake your head vigorously as to remove the cancerous thoughts that are overthrowing your mind.

You’d better start heading out before you go full insane. You sit up on your bed and mentally prep yourself. _You can make it through the next couple of hours. This will be nothing. It’ll be over before you know it_. Then you get up and leave your apartment to meet everyone else at the school’s parking lot.

You are now walking outside the apartment building and start heading towards the school. The apartments are actually very close to the school because they’re in some affiliation with the school so that students can be moved out of the dorms and in more comfortable spaces. It’s normally for the juniors and seniors but you had to get the hell away from those dorms.

When you walk to the school, you always pass by the girl’s dorms because that’s just the closest side of the school to your apartment. You’re not some perv.

As you enter the campus you pass by the girl’s dorm building as always. It’s strangely quiet at this time. Very few people have their classes at this time and the rest are either in their dorm rooms studying or going out with friends. You’re not in the last category though. You’re going out with a friend, one girl you don’t know at all, and a pompous asshole. This is more of a mandatory group counseling meeting.

As you continue past the girl’s dorms you notice a familiar person. She has big, wavy, dark-brown hair, pink-rimmed glasses, and some faint freckles across her face. Strangely, she’s wearing a sleeveless, fuchsia top with a medium-length, green and blue skirt. She also looks like she really likes bracelets and necklaces because she appears to have almost 10 of each on. She’s busy on her phone texting. Probably Eridan. You figure you ought to be nice and talk to her. Maybe even...

“Hey, Feferi, right?” you ask. She turns around a little startled. She must’ve been really focused on her texting.

“Oh, hey there, Sollux! You surprised me!” she exclaims.

“Thorry. Were you teckthting Eridan?” you ask as you continue to walk towards the parking lot and Feferi walks alongside you.

“No, actually. I was texting another friend” she says and smiles. You guess that she isn’t nearly as lame as Eridan if she has a larger circle of friends. That’s quite sad for Eridan, though.

“Ah. Tho how long have you been friendth with Eridan?” You ask but really you don’t care at all. You just really hate awkward silences.

“Oh since freshman year in high school! We’ve been best friends ever since,” she answers happily and smiles that kind of smile where your eyes are closed and look really cute. “How long have you and Aradia known each other?”

“Thinthe latht year. She’s pretty great,” you answer. You don’t want to delve into the entire back-story again.

“Oh, that’s neat. Yeah, she seems like the fun type” she says, her face still wearing a smile. Gosh, this girl is so cheery. And you thought Aradia was a strange girl. “How do you feel about tonight?” she asks. Aw crap. You don’t know how to answer that. Uh, uh, think quick!

“It’th gonna be really eckthellent”, you finally blurt out. Shit, fuck, dammit. That is definitely not what you wanted to say. And you said it so monotone, she’ll never believe you meant it. You didn’t even have a sarcastic tone, just flat voice.

“Oh really? What makes you say that? Hm?” she asks very curiously leaning kinda close to you, very interested in why you’d say such a thing. She’s right, what on earth would make someone say something like that? Crap, now you have to come up with either a really good response or a distraction.

You’re both close to the parking lot now. There’s just one more street to cross...

Suddenly, a biker going unusually fast down the street zooms right in front of you both just before you set foot on the street. You quickly react to pull Feferi back by her arm. She looks in shock at the biker who’s now waving back at you two as a way of apologizing.

“Holy carp! That was so close!” She says with a face of astonishment. Then she looks at you in the eyes. Oh shit, you really don’t want this to be some kind of romantic event where-

“HAHAHAHA!!!” suddenly Feferi is bursting with laughter. At first you’re confused. But then you realize how funny it actually was and start laughing too. You both continue on towards the parking lot.

You put your arm around Feferi’s shoulders and say, “Aren’t you glad I’m here to protect you?” in a sarcastic way.

“Haha, oh shuttup I would’ve been fine. My first thought was ‘oh god, I’m gonna miss the movie!’” You both laugh and make your ways to Aradia and Eridan. You notice Eridan looking at your arm around Feferi’s shoulder. You figure this is a good opportunity to really bother Eridan.

“What’s so funny?” Eridan asks, sounding a little annoyed already. 

“I was talking to Sollux about-” Feferi begins to answer. If she explains, it’ll look like innocent joking around.

You interrupt her, “Oh it was nothing.” You see Eridan’s face grow from annoyance to outright frustration. You are very pleased with yourself. He totally thinks you’re stealing his best friend. Then you think back to when Feferi was texting other friends. She’s really almost all he has... You can’t imagine how you’d feel if you were to lose Aradia. You never really thought of that possibility, but you think you’d find it pretty damn hard to go on alone. But this is Eridan and you’re not even really taking away his friend, just giving him a little scare.

“So are we going?” Feferi asks in her happy tone. 

Aradia answers, “Everyone in!” and gets in the driver’s seat. You notice Eridan about to get into the backseat. He probably wants to be with his friend, but you’re not gonna let that happen.

“I call the backseat with Feferi” you say and jump in front of Eridan, beating him to the backseat door. Oh, he’s really gonna be pissed. Excellent.

“Oh no, I _must_ be in the front seat,” Feferi says. Ugh, this is not according to plan. You notice Feferi kind of make a wink at Aradia. What the hell? Oh you see now. She’s got a taste for the oyster. Well then most likely Eridan already knows that. He’ll never believe that you’re successfully flirting with her. He would most likely just get defensive for her sake rather than for the friendship.

You are about to start crawling into the backseat before hipster boy, but then you notice your friends face in the rear view mirror. She’s glaring at you and shaking her head. Ugh, you must be the “gentleman” and let the pretty boy in first. So you back out of Eridan’s way, and motion for him to go in first. He gladly, and gloatingly, goes in the car. Pompous prick.

You climb in right behind him. You have no idea why you had to both come in the same side of the car, but you did. Now Aradia is driving out of the parking lot and onto the road. Oh, this is gonna be good. The bastard is most likely not used to riding with a driver like Aradia. Indeed, your friend is the craziest of all drivers.

Aradia is speeding thirty miles over the limit and passing just about every red light. You look over at Eridan and see him gripping the overhead handle for dear life. Hahaha, what a wuss. You, however, are calmly sitting in your seat, looking at the ridiculous, stressed mess sitting next to you. The look on his face is priceless. You almost want to pull out your phone and take a picture. But you really don’t want to get caught with a picture of some guy you hate on your phone.

Eventually, after a wild ride by Aradia, you all arrive at the movies. You and Aradia calmly exit the car while Eridan and Feferi get off in a dizzy, disoriented fashion. Haha, how cute. They’re holding each other in gratefulness to be alive. Reminds you of when you first rode in Aradia’s car, except you weren’t nearly as dramatic about it.

After Feferi and Eridan finish with their little performance, everyone goes to the ticket stand thingy to, well, buy tickets. What the hell else do you do there? Anyway, for some reason Aradia and Feferi are really eager to buy the tickets. Not like you were going to be the one to volunteer to pay for everyone, but you find it weird that the two girls in the group want to pay for this meet-up, or date or whatever it’s called in these circumstances, entirely on their own.

But of course, you don’t question it and just stand aside as the girls are happily getting the tickets. Eridan is standing next to you as well. Look at him with his stupid vest and rolled up sleeves and damn ugly scarf. Is he actually trying to impress someone here? Who? He probably thinks he’s better than everyone in this group. He couldn’t be more wrong. You’d put your money on yourself being smarter than him. I mean, the kind of guy that walks around in a cape, not expecting to trip on it while going down stairs has got to be lame in some way. Right? Oh shuttup you fell backwards down the stairs at the beginning of the semester. Ugh, stop with the fighting, you two. Wait, are you really telling your own mind to stop fighting with itself? Did you just bring in an unnecessary third entity into this? No, definitely not. That is not happening. Two is a good enough number. You really like the number 2 so you’re gonna keep your head divided as such. Actually, you’d prefer it down to just 1 mind but let’s face it, that’s not happening.

During your internal rambling, you never noticed that your arm has been touching Eridan’s the whole time. Aw shit. Wait, then why hasn’t he moved this whole time? He could’ve shuffled aside by now. Maybe...maybe he, likes it? Wow, what a weirdo this kid is. Or, actually, maybe he’s got a lot of shit going on in his head as well? You did kinda give him the notion that you’re hitting on his best friend. Maybe this whole time he’s been contemplating that. If you were to move aside now, he’d probably break out of that thought. You don’t really want that though, do you? No, so you shall remain here and lightly touch his arm. It feels weird...not too bad, but weird.

After a few moments, Aradia and Feferi have obtained the tickets and want you two to follow them inside. But their politeness ends there as they let the door close behind them. You were following right behind Eridan by accident. While he paused his footsteps to open the door, you got a little too close behind him. In fact you were so close you could smell the very faint cologne on him that you didn’t even know he was wearing. Crap, now he thinks you’re a freak who breathes down people’s necks. Well let him think what he wants. You don’t give two shits what he thinks about you. Actually, you do a little... Shuttup, other brain!

Everyone is inside now and you’re directed to your theater, theater 14 as it appears. Aradia and Feferi lead the way to good seats right about the middle of the theater. You, personally, would prefer the back row. You don’t have to worry about people behind you throwing things and you can hold Eridan’s hand in the da- WOAH. WHAT THE HELL, MAN?! Ugh, calm down calm down calm down. You let out a quick breath. Don’t ever let a thought like that happen again.

Feferi appears to have forced Eridan to sit to her right. You really don’t want to sit next to him so you try to sit on Aradia’s right, away from him. But she whispers in your ear, “Don’t be an ass and separate the group. Sit here” and points to the seat on her left. Oh god, why is she doing this to you? Does she know that she’s torturing you or has she become mentally impaired recently? You groan quietly and sit to her left, right next to Eridan. This is going to be the longest two hours you’ve ever had to endure.

“Feferi, would you like to go with me to get popcorn?” Aradia asks Feferi. Oh of course, she’s gonna leave you with the dork. 

“Sure!” Feferi answers with such enthusiasm. You are honestly astounded by the amount of energy and excitement bound in one small girl. You lean back and allow Feferi to pass in front of you and leave the theater with Aradia. Great, now you’re stuck in awkward silence and the dark with this loser next to you. Well, maybe he’ll get smart and move over away from you. You sure as hell aren’t gonna move. You’re standing your ground. Well, in this case, sitting your seat. But that doesn’t sound nearly as epic.

You just stare forward at the previews and other nonsense happening on the screen with your arms crossed. Ughhhhh, all these damn previews just make this night seem longer than necessary. Actually, none of this night is necessary. So then it’s really just making it even more unnecessary.

Eridan still hasn’t moved over. Why the hell won’t he just move over a seat? Dammit, is he trying to make you move? Oh hell no! You’re not letting him win this battle! You need to let him know that this is your seat and that you’re not planning on moving. 

You let yourself relax to show that you’re comfortable with your seat and you don’t want to move over. You try to enhance the effect by placing your hand on the arm rest between you two to show that it is officially your territory. But as you put your arm down, you don’t feel the gross plastic of a usual theater arm rest. You feel a warm, soft material...and a pulse. Oh god, what is this fleshy, house of horror bullshit?!? Oh wait, it’s just Eridan’s hand...THAT’S EVEN WORSE. You want to immediately retract your hand. But when you look to your left and see Eridan’s stern face that’s trying to tell you that he has taken the arm rest, you remember that you weren’t going to let him win.

“Oh pith off. You don’t own the arm retht”, you state angrily to him with your hand still lying on his. He appears to have gotten angrier with that.

“I had my hand on it first, obviously,” he says and looks down at his hand rested firmly on the cup holder. Now you really look like a dumbass. He has a point. His hand is obviously on the arm rest while yours is just lying on his hand. Regardless, you have seniority over him and deserve the arm rest! You crack a plan in your head to make him feel uncomfortable. He’d _have_ to move then.

“Fine, I’ll jutht keep my hand here” you say and ensure the message gets across by pressing your hand down even harder on his. This has got to work; he wouldn’t want to sit through the whole movie with you touching him. He doesn’t seem the type to appreciate physical contact with others.

“Go ahead, I don’t mind because _I_ have the arm rest.” Dammit, you were wrong. You’d keep your hand there, but you don’t have much time before Aradia and Feferi get back, and then you’re stuck next to him for the whole movie. You need to get more assertive right now.

“Jutht give me the damn arm retht!” Okay, you said more assertive, not louder. Now you can feel the whole theater looking at you. But you’re not turning your head at all to them. You’re keeping your eyes on Eridan’s. You’re not letting up.

“Make me!” Eridan shouts back at you into your face. Oh, you done it now Eridan Ampora. You lunge yourself at him and knocking him to the floor. He wasn’t able to react quickly enough so you straddled him and held his arms down by the wrists, pinning him down.

“Ha! I’ve got you!” you shout at him, trying to rub it in how much weaker he is than you. And that’s really saying something considering you’re a skinny guy who’s usually in his room sitting at his laptop.  
Then you suddenly get knocked forward by a hit from behind. Asshole kneed you in the ass! You collapse forward onto Eridan with your chest pressed against his face. Oh god that is awkward...

He then attempts in overpowering you and flips you around so that he’s now on top of you. He may have succeeded, but the doofus managed to get his hands caught under your body. Dumbass. And now his body is pressed against yours thanks to his stupidity. You really don’t want to be in this position yet again.

“Get off of me!” you shout even though you understand that he’s stuck. Wow, now _you’re_ the dumbass. Again.

“I’m tryin’!” he shouts back at you, as if trying to tell you that he doesn’t want to be pressed against you any more than you do. You try lifting up your body to let him free. He gets free, but then you realize that your crotch is pressing up against him now. Gross. Once you made the realization, you immediately drop back down. This, however, brings Eridan falling right back down on top of you. And now his hands are against your chest. This has got to be the most awkward position you’ve ever been in. His top half is laying snuggly against you and his hands are just feelin’ up your chest. But, then you notice his eyes. His beautiful, violet eyes. Shit, not these feelings again. You feel no attraction to him! You can’t! You just can’t...

But you do. You want him more than ever right now. You can’t help it, a look into those eyes and you’re longing to finish what was started earlier. You desire the closure of what could've been back on his bed, maybe more…

But then Eridan begins to get up off of you. He's now sitting up while still straddling your hips. What do you do? He's about to get off and leave. You feel the ember kindling inside of you, moving you to do something, to keep him with you. You can't fight the calling from within. You grab Eridan by his shirt and pull him down, then you raise up your upper half to be at his level. You press your lips to his passionately. Your eyes tighten. You don't want to be doing this, but something else inside is telling you that the truth is on the contrary.

You allow yourself to melt into the moment. You feel a rush of excitement, bliss, and adrenaline, all in one quick moment. Oh how you wish you could stay frozen here with him, ignoring the rest of the movie-goers. For a moment, you feared he wasn't enjoying it, that you rushed him into something he didn't want. But that fear vanished when Eridan wrapped his arms around you and pulled closer, and you feel so horridly glad. You can feel his chest against yours, his breathing, his beating heart beginning to synch with yours. Then, suddenly you hear a very aggravated "ahem" in the distance.

You and Eridan quickly halt the making out and look to the aisle where an attendant is shining a flashlight in your faces. “I’m gonna have to ask you two to leave,” he says. You look over and see Feferi and Aradia standing near him, trying to hide their snickering. Oh god, how much of that did they see?? Your face flushes with embarrassment as you and Eridan shamefully pick yourselves up off the gross theater floor.You're so frightened by the potential ridicule from your friend and Feferi that you don't even do a good job of dusting off the filth from your clothes.

You are escorted out of the theater with your head hanging and Aradia and Feferi still giggling behind you two. When you reach the outside of the movie theater in the cold night, you are left to be in awkward silence next to Eridan as Aradia and Feferi finally let loose and laugh like a pair of lunatics at you and Eridan's expense. All you can do is look at them in anguish as they guffaw and hold their sides.Eventually they stop and return to controlled behavior and smile in the direction of you and Eridan.

You blush up when you see that they are smirking at you. You cross your arms in attempt to retain your cool factor and ask, “What are you two looking at?” Then you look over at Eridan, who is now crossing his arms as well, and notice that he's just as red in the face as you are. How adorable… wait, no, fuck. You didn't mean to say that. You meant, how _deplorable_. This is so stupid.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just a good thing that theater guy came in before you did anything more...” Aradia answers and laughs a little with Feferi. Fuck, this is so painful. You and Eridan can only blush even more in silence.

“Can we please just go home now?” Eridan finally speaks. He then covers his face with his convenient scarf. Good idea, you pull your hood over your head in attempt to cover yourself more also.

Aradia agrees that it's time to go back to your dorms since you got kicked out of the theater, ruining everyone's saturday night. You sit in the backseat with Eridan and just remain motionless, arms crossed and facing forward. You can't believe you let this happen. You and him? You look next to you and see Eridan staring out the window with a look of shame on his face. Geez, well it wasn't all rainbows and daisies for you either… well, actually… it wasn't all that bad. You let out a quiet sigh.

You're silent the whole way back to the campus, and the only thing on your mind is _what's wrong with my head?_


	11. Epilogue

# Epilogue

A couple days have passed since the incident. Sollux and Eridan are each in their rooms, contemplating that fateful night.

*You are Eridan*  
You're laying back on your bead, stolid physically and mentally. You can't understand why you still think back to that night at the movies. What was it, like 2 days ago? You should be trying to forget about it by now. Yet you can't shake it. Something about that kiss, something about _him_ that just felt so... right. Normally you wouldn't want to touch him with a ten foot pole, yet, right now, you wish he'd be right here next to you. And it doesn't help that Feferi and Aradia continue to talk to each other often.

Then, suddenly, you realize something. _Sollux pulled you in for the kiss_. He was the one who wanted it! Sollux actually likes you! Yes! Phase one is complete…

*You are Sollux*  
You're sitting at your computer chair, working on scripting a program you've been working on in attempt to keep the thoughts of that night at bay. Ugh, you just failed at ignoring them by recognizing that you're ignoring them! Your damn two-faced mind keeps throwing you off. You give in and decide to take a break from coding and reminisce about that night. What earthly force could have driven you to kiss him! Why? Why did you do it?! And Aradia keeps talking to Feferi, and you notice every time they're hanging out together, how they glance at you quickly and start giggling. You have the feeling that they're up to something…

But then, your other mind slaps you in the face with a realization. The only thing that could've prevented you from kissing Eridan, was your own willpower. But you didn't have that. You fully wanted that kiss, and you got it. You wanted it, because _you love the little weirdo_.

To be continued...


End file.
